40K Friday - Dreadnought Decisions

 

I picked up a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought earlier this year - that's the monster in the picture up there - and this has lead to a conundrum: I'm not sure which army to put it in. It's a Forgeworld unit which means they're a little pricier than regular 40K so I'm not looking to pick up a half-dozen anytime soon -AND- they cost you a Command Point for each one you include in your army so I probably don't want multiples in an army anyway unless I have a particularly cunning plan. 

Now Contemptor Dreadnoughts are all the rage right now because of the variety of weapons they can include - the current meta-winner is putting two "twin volkite culverin" for a ridiculous number of shots and the chance for a bunch of mortal wounds. I love Contemptors and I do have a half-dozen or so of them scattered across several armies, loyalist and traitor alike. 

That said Leviathans are still bigger and still very cool and pack weapons you don't get on the Contemptor class.  The issue right now is having only one of them and having roughly ten armies it could join. Some of them are right-out from the start though:

• While it would be hilarious to paint one up to match my Rogue Trader Howling Griffons I just don't think that's the smartest use of the beast as I so not put them on the table all that often. Plus I use my two old metal dreads as Contemptors anyway so the "exotic dreadnought" box is already checked. 
• My Dark Angels have a lot of other options and I just don't like adding it here. Plus there is a very cool DA-specific Leviathan that I'd rather hunt down for them anyway.
• The Blood Angels on my shelf have a bunch of dreadnoughts already including a Relic Contemptor  with quad lascannons and cyclone launcher. It may happen someday but right now I don't feel like it adds that much to my force.
• Imperial Fists: This is an all-Terminator force that has zero dreadnoughts right now. If I'm going to add some to it I'm not going to start with a Leviathan. 
• The "White Marines" which are a separate force I picked up as a whole that are painted a lot like White Scars but not as White Scars. This is not one I'm looking to expand right now so ... no.

Yeah, I have too many power armor armies, I know. But let's talk about where the big dread makes sense:

Death Guard Leviathan

• Crimson Fists! I've been adding dreadnoughts to this army over the last few years as a particular area of focus. The only current types it does not have are a Leviathan and a Deredeo. Putting a big punchy dread in here would fit just fine.
• Black Templars! I've allocated a pair of Ironclads here and a regular dread or two but I do really like the idea of a big monster that could shoot and fight in melee to accompany the crusader squads into combat.
• Death Guard! You don't see them on the table a lot for DG but they do look good in the color scheme. It would add another tough unit to an army with a lot of hard targets already. Only conflict here is that I'm working on a pair of relic Contemptors for this force so it becomes a question of CP cost.
• World Eaters! I have two Helbrutes in this army so there is room for more but I also have a Maulerfiend and a pair of Defilers I like to take here with a Lord Discordant so I feel like the Leviathan could get lost or force me to reallocate some of this stuff.
• Iron Warriors! I have 4 Helbrutes here so in that sense I am over-nautted but I have not put anything else in here that's particularly exotic. The rest of the heavy stuff is normal tanks so there is room for another fun unit. 

One of the reasons for this post is that I would like to get it painted and on the table so I need to commit at some point and while pondering a thought occurred to me. Loyalists have the Redemptor Dreadnought - the newer Primaris dread that is much bigger than the traditional dreads and is a very popular choice right now. More specifically my Crimson Fists have two of them, Blood Angels have one, and my Dark Angels have one ... but it's not an option for Chaos. There's not a comparable big dread for Chaos - other than the Leviathan.

Redemptor Dreadnought

So this has helped me narrow things down. I was really leaning towards making him a Black Templar but I could just put a Redemptor there and put the Lev into one of my Chaos Marine forces. Right now I'm leaning towards DG or Iron Warriors. 

And that's where it stands right now - down to the last few choices. Hopefully  I will figure it out this week and get this particular project started.